Lois Callahan, national president of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, made a stop at Buckhannon’s Gold Star Mothers Rose Garden on Tuesday evening to lay a yellow rose wreath at the Jawbone Park memorial.
City Recorder Randy Sanders, on behalf of Mayor Robbie Skinner and the Buckhannon City Council, presented Callahan with a Key to the City in recognition of her leadership, her service to veterans and their families, and her visit to the community.
Callahan, of Little Rock, Arkansas, visits every state during her year as national president. She chose Buckhannon’s Rose Garden as her West Virginia stop, timed to coincide with the West Virginia Strawberry Festival.
Carey Wagner, president of the VFW Post 3663 Auxiliary, welcomed Callahan and led the wreath-laying ceremony with state officers, special guests and members of the post and auxiliary.
Wagner told Buckhannon City Council on May 7 that the local auxiliary submitted the Rose Garden project to a national platform for recognition after its dedication last September.
“We thought it was a premier project for West Virginia, for Buckhannon, for our auxiliary,” she said. “Somebody put the Rose Garden in front of her and said, ‘Look, this is a premier project. You need to visit this.’”
National Auxiliary presidents most often pick stops in the Charleston area, Wagner said.
“They do pick different places, but usually they stay around Charleston,” she told council. “Mrs. Callahan has elected to come to Buckhannon.”
Callahan’s national theme this year is “Let your light shine,” with a lighthouse as its symbol. The local auxiliary built a lighthouse decorated with strawberries, with a West Virginia outline shining in the light at the top, as a gift for her. After the ceremony at the garden, Callahan was hosted at the Post for strawberry desserts before traveling on to the West Virginia National Cemetery in Grafton.
For Wagner, the visit was a personal milestone. The Rose Garden project began in the spring of 2025, and roughly 250 people attended its dedication on September 28.
“It is a living tribute garden. It’s not something to be saddened by. It is to prove that we live,” Wagner said. “The roses have proved that they went dormant for the winter, and they’re starting to green up and grow. They’re alive again. That was the whole idea of the rose garden — the remembrance of the men and women who have given their lives, and that the Gold Star families would always have a presence in a tribute garden that would live on.”
When Wagner first described the visit to council, members welcomed the news.
“I feel great voting for that rose memorial more than a year ago,” Councilman Scott Randall said. “Now we are seeing the fruits of that recognition.”
“We’re not trying to make a big deal about it,” Wagner said, “but we think that it’s a big deal.”